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Movies Forum Index » Silent Movies Forum » The Independent: Missing reels from Lang's...
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| Bruce Calvert... |
 Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:32 pm |
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/missing-reels-from-langs-metropolis-discovered-860006.html
Missing reels from Lang's 'Metropolis' discovered
By Tony Paterson in Berlin
Friday, 4 July 2008
A print of Fritz Lang's Metropolis has been found that includes almost
a quarter of the silent film which was thought to have been lost.
After being edited out and, it was thought, lost in 1927, the missing
scenes were found on three reels uncovered at a small cinema museum in
the Argentinian capital, Buenos Aires, earlier this year. They were
flown to Berlin this week and have now been authenticated by film
historians.
Yesterday, Anke Wilkening, one of the team of historians, said all but
one scene of the full version, last viewed in May 1927, had been
rediscovered. "Almost everything that had been missing has been found,
including two key scenes," she said.
Rainer Rother, another historian, said the discovery of the material,
although not in perfect condition, meant that Germany's most
significant and expensive silent film could be "seen through new
eyes". Until now, Metropolis screenings had come with the warning:
"More than a quarter of the film is believed to be lost forever."
Die Zeit published grainy, black-and-white stills yesterday which had
been taken from the reels. They included crowd scenes, and images of
Brigitte Helm, the heroine, gripped by fear and screaming as she tries
to run from her pursuers.
Lang first screened the original version in Berlin in January 1927.
Set in a futuristic vision of the German capital, the film portrays a
corrupt and divided society in which the elite live in luxury while
workers toil underground.
When the son of the city's ruler falls in love with a woman from the
workers' underworld, a bitter and violent conflict erupts. Lang had
intended the film to be an invective against Hollywood, but it
flopped. It was panned by critics, ignored by audiences and savagely
edited by Paramount, which owned the distribution rights.
Their new product was hardly better received. A German critic who had
seen the original said the edited version had lost "nearly all its
drama" and the writer H G Wells remarked after a showing: "I have just
seen the most stupid of films."
The plot was simplified and pivotal scenes were edited out. Some 25
minutes of the original 150 were lost. Most historians assumed the
edited footage had been dumped at Paramount's cutting rooms.
Yesterday, the fate of the missing scenes and their rediscovery was
explained. Die Zeit revealed the role of Adolfo Z Wilson, the head of
a film-distribution company called Terra, based in Buenos Aires. He
had seen the original, preferred it, and was keen to show it in
Argentina. He managed to buy a copy of the full version in 1928 and
then chose to ignore his contractual obligation to destroy the print
after it had been shown in cinemas.
Instead, he gave it to an Argentine film critic called Manuel Pena
Rodriguez who later handed it on to the Argentine National Film
Foundation. There, the reels were copied on to 16mm film. The new
reels were given to the small Museo del Cine in 1992 but lay unnoticed
in its archives until earlier this year. Credit for their discovery
goes to Fernando Pena, a historian who first had an inkling that the
original version was in circulation somewhere in the country after
recalling a film-goer who had complained about viewing an "endless"
version of Metropolis back in the 1980s.
Paradoxically, it was Mr Pena's former wife, Paula Felix-Didier, who
led him to discover the whereabouts of the reels – she was appointed
director of the Museo del Cine at the beginning of this year. The two
found and viewed the museum's copy three months ago and were certain
it was the original.
Ms Felix-Didier was in Berlin this week to show the reels to
historians. Martin Körber, who restored the hitherto longest version
of Metropolis and who examined the footage, said yesterday: "No matter
how bad the condition of the material may be, the original intention
of the film, including all of its minor characters and subplots, is
now once again tangible for the normal viewer. The rhythm of the film
has been restored."
The reels were returned to Buenos Aires on Wednesday, but the
historians were unanimous yesterday in their view that a full-length
version of Metropolis could be available for public viewing within
months.
Bruce Calvert
--
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